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Top2. Is The Gender Digital Divide Still A Developmental Issue?
In regard to the digital divide, one of the most pertinent technological inequalities is the gender divide (Dixon et al., 2014). The gender digital divide refers “to the structure of opportunities, cultural attitudes and skills related to the use of ICTs” (UNESCO, 2014, p. 50). In terms of the Internet, the digital divide is fundamentally gender related (Bimber, 2000; Kennedy, Wellman, Klement, & Klement, 2003; Ono & Zavodny, 2003; Vijayalakshmi & Bhavani, 2006). While the Internet is considered to be ‘genderless’ since it is available to and usable by anyone who chooses, a greater proportion of the unconnected global citizens are women (UNESCO, 2013).
There is no denying the fact that when women are successfully connected to the Internet they can be well informed, and this can significantly contribute to the economic and social development of a country and lead to significant boost in its national income (Intel, 2013). Although there has been a reported increase in the access to and use of technology by both women and men, women continue to be less technologically oriented than their male counterparts. Women are less intense users of both e-mail and the Web, and they use the web less diversely than do men (Miller & Shrum, 2011). Gender differences continue to be reported in research studies (Johnson, 2010; Pan et al., 2011). The Internet is not viewed as an enabling environment for women, as many women do not feel comfortable with some of the content (Gajjala, 2002). Some studies show that women tend to show higher levels of discomfort with the Internet and show more anxiety than men (Chou, 2003; Jackson et al., 2001; Schumacher & Morahan-Martin, 2001; Tsai, Lin, & Tsai, 2001). Hence, women use the Internet less frequently compared to men (Bimber, 2000; Kennedy et al., 2003; Ono & Zavodny, 2003; Wasserman & Richmond-Abbott, 2005).